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DuringWorld War II,resistance movements operated inGerman-occupied Europe by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation to propaganda, hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. In many countries, resistance movements were sometimes also referred to asThe Underground.
While resistance groups played a significant auxiliary role in harassing the enemy, their military impact was limited, and they were incapable of liberating their nations alone. Overall, the effectiveness of resistance movements during World War II is generally measured more by their political and moral impact than their decisive military contribution to the overall Allied victory.
By 1941, British assessment ofAllied resistance groups suggested that althoughNazi Germanynow controlled much of Europe, only Czechoslovakia, Poland and (in Asia) China had considerable resistance networks.[1] Although by 1942resistance groups formed in most occupied territories,[2]: 24 the assessments of effectiveness of large resistance networks such asSoviet partisans[3] andFrench Resistance[4] suggests that they did not significantly hamper German operations until late 1943. All resistance movemements were also significantly dependent on support from Allied powers.[5]
Resistance also encompassed activities beyond armed combat, such assabotage,espionage, assisting escapees from Nazis, and other activities.[5][2]: 24
Overall assessment of resistance effectivness is a matter of debate among historians.[2]: 60–61 [5]Jørgen Hæstrup [da] argued that resistance activities "influenced the course of the War decisively [particularly] in the psychological sector".[6] According toEvan Mawdsley, however, in military terms, "the resistance did not do a great deal to achieve the strategic objectives" ofmajor Allied powers, failing (with few late war expceptions) to regain territory or tie-down frontline German troops.[2]: 60–61 J. R. Seeger notes that in specific campaigns, the resistance was considered highly valuable, and on the "rare occasions" resistance forces were able to tie down German troops, this benefited conventional Allied forces in that theater, but often resulted in "horrific Nazi reprisals".[5] Mawdsley does, however, acknowledge that the resistance movements played "a significant auxiliary role in the area of sabotage and the gathering of intelligence", and that the movements had "great political and moral (and propaganda) importance", translating to their subsequent significant impact oncollective memory.[2]: 60–61
The resistance movements in World War II can be broken down into two primary politically polarized camps:
Among the most notable resistance movements were:
And thepolitically persecutedopposition in Germany itself (there were 16 main resistance groups and at least 27 failedattempts to assassinate Hitler with many more planned, and defectors to the Soviet Union and the anti-Axis resistance in Greece and France).
Many countries had resistance movements dedicated to fighting or undermining theAxis invaders, andNazi Germany itself also had ananti-Nazi movement. AlthoughBritain was not occupied during the war, the British made complex preparations for a British resistance movement. The main organisation was created by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, akaMI6) and is now known as Section VII.[7] In addition there was a short-term secret commando force called theAuxiliary Units.[8] Various organizations were also formed to establish foreign resistance cells or support existing resistance movements, like the BritishSpecial Operations Executive and the AmericanOffice of Strategic Services (the forerunner of theCentral Intelligence Agency). There were also resistance movements fighting againstAllied invaders. InItalian East Africa, after the Italians were defeated during theEast African Campaign, some Italian soldiers and settlers participated in aguerrilla war against the Allies from 1941 to 1943. Though theWerwolf Nazi German resistance movement never amounted to much, the GermanVolkssturm played an extensive role in theBattle of Berlin. The "Forest Brothers" ofEstonia,Latvia andLithuania included many fighters who operated against theSoviet occupation of the Baltic States into the 1960s. During or after the war, similar anti-Soviet resistance rose up in places likeRomania,Poland,Bulgaria,Ukraine, andChechnya.
After the first shock following theBlitzkrieg, people slowly started organizing, both locally and on a larger scale, especially whenJews and other groups began to be deported and used asArbeitseinsatz (forced labor for the Germans). Organization was dangerous, so most resistance actions were performed by individuals. The possibilities heavily depended on the terrain; where there were large tracts of uninhabited land, especially hills and forests, resistance forces could more easily organise undetected; this particularly favouredSoviet partisans inEastern Europe. In more densely populated countries such as theNetherlands, theBiesbosch wilderness was used. Innorthern Italy, both theAlps and theApennines offered shelter to partisan brigades, though many groups operated directly inside the major cities.
There were many different types of groups, ranging in activity fromhumanitarian aid to armed resistance, who sometimes cooperated in varying degrees. Resistance usually arose spontaneously, but was encouraged and helped along by London and Moscow.
While historians and governments of some European countries have attempted to portray resistance to Nazi occupation as widespread among their populations,[9] only a small minority of people participated in organized resistance, estimated at one to three percent of the population of countries in western Europe. In eastern Europe where Nazi rule was more oppressive, a larger percentage of people were in organized resistance movements, for example, an estimated 10-15 percent of the Polish population. Passive resistance by non-cooperation with the occupiers was much more common.[10] Greece, Yugoslavia, Poland, and Ukraine had large numbers of resistors to the German occupation. In western Europe, where the German hand was less oppressive, the resistors were fewer. However, in the west, according to historian Tony Judt, the "myth of resistance mattered most."[11]
A number of sources note that the PolishHome Army was the largest resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Europe.Norman Davies writes that the "Armia Krajowa (Home Army), the AK,... could fairly claim to be the largest of European resistance [organizations]."[12]Gregor Dallas writes that the "Home Army (Armia Krajowa or AK) in late 1943 numbered around 400,000, making it the largest resistance organization in Europe."[13]Mark Wyman writes that the "Armia Krajowa was considered the largest underground resistance unit in wartime Europe."[14] However, the numbers ofSoviet partisans were very similar to those of the Polish resistance,[15] as were the numbers ofYugoslav Partisans.[citation needed] For the French Resistance,François Marcot ventured an estimate of 200,000 activists and a further 300,000 with substantial involvement in Resistance operations.[16] For the Resistance in Italy, Giovanni di Capua estimates that, by August 1944, the number of partisans reached around 100,000, and it escalated to more than 250,000 with the final insurrection in April 1945.[17]
Various forms of resistance were:
On 15 September 1939, a member of the Czech resistance movement, Ctibor Novák, planted explosive devices in Berlin. His first bomb detonated in front of the Ministry of Aeronautics, and the second detonated in front of police headquarters. Both buildings were damaged and many Germans were injured.
On 28 October 1939 (the anniversary of the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918), there were large demonstrations against Nazi occupation in Prague, with about 100,000 Czechs. Demonstrators crowded the streets in the city. German police had to disperse the demonstrators, and began shooting in the evening. The first victim was baker Václav Sedláček, who was shot dead. The second victim was student Jan Opletal, who was critically injured, and died on 11 November. Another 15 people were badly injured and hundreds of people sustained minor injuries. About 400 people were arrested.
In March 1940, apartisan unit of the firstguerilla organization of the Second World War in Europe, theDetached Unit of the Polish Army, led by MajorHenryk Dobrzański (Hubal), defeated abattalion of German infantry in a skirmish near the Polish village ofHucisko. A few days later in an ambush near the village ofSzałasy it inflicted heavy casualties upon another German unit. As time progressed, resistance forces grew in size and number. To counter this threat, the German authorities formed a special 1,000 man-strong anti-partisan unit of combinedSS-Wehrmacht forces, including aPanzer group. Although Dobrzański's unit never exceeded 300 men, the Germans fielded at least 8,000 men in the area to secure it.[18][19]
In 1940,Witold Pilecki, of thePolish resistance, presented to his superiors a plan to enter Germany'sAuschwitz concentration camp, gather intelligence on the camp from the inside, and organize inmate resistance.[20] TheHome Army approved this plan and provided him with a false identity card, and on 19 September 1940 he deliberately went out during a street roundup in Warsaw-łapanka, and was caught by the Germans along with other civilians and sent to Auschwitz. In the camp he organized the underground organizationZwiązek Organizacji Wojskowej (ZOW).[21]From October 1940, ZOW sent the first reports about the camp and itsgenocide to Home Army Headquarters in Warsaw through the resistance network organized in Auschwitz.[22]
On the night of January 21–22, 1940, in the Soviet-occupiedPodolian town ofCzortków, theCzortków Uprising started. It was the first Polish uprising and the first anti-Soviet uprising of World War II. Anti-Soviet Poles, most of them teenagers from local high schools, stormed the localRed Army barracks and a prison, in order to release Polish soldiers kept there.
1940 was the year of establishing theWarsaw Ghetto and the infamousAuschwitz-Birkenau death camp by the German Nazis in occupied Poland.Among the many activities of Polish resistance and Polish people was helping endangered Jews. Polish citizens have the world's highest count of individuals who have been recognized asRighteous Among the Nations byYad Vashem as non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from extermination during theHolocaust.[23]
One of the events that helped the growth of the French Resistance was the targeting of the French Jews, Communists, Romani, homosexuals, Catholics, and others, forcing many into hiding. This in turn gave the French Resistance new people to incorporate into their political structures.
Around May 1940, a resistance group formed around the Austrian priestHeinrich Maier, who until 1944 very successfully passed on the plans and production locations forV-2 rockets,Tiger tanks and airplanes (Messerschmitt Bf 109,Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, etc.) to the Allies so that they could target these important factories for destruction; the group also planned for the Central European states' post-war. Very early on they passed on information about the mass murder of the Jews to the Allies.[24][25][26]
TheSpecial Operations Executive (SOE) was a BritishWorld War II organisation. WithCabinet approval, it was officially formed byMinister of Economic WarfareHugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to develop a spirit of resistance in the occupied countries and to prepare afifth column of resistance fighters to engage in open opposition to the occupiers when the United Kingdom was able to return to the continent.[27] To aid in the transport of agents and the supply of the resistance fighters, aRoyal Air Force Special Duty Service was developed. Whereas theSIS was primarily involved inespionage, the SOE and the resistance fighters were geared towardreconnaissance of German defenses andsabotage. In England the SOE was also involved in the formation of theAuxiliary Units, a top secretstay-behind resistance organisation which would have been activated in the event of aGerman invasion of Britain. The SOE operated in all countries or former countries occupied by or attacked by the Axis forces, except where demarcation lines were agreed with Britain's principal allies (theSoviet Union and theUnited States).
The organisation was officially dissolved on 15 January 1946.
In February 1941, theDutch Communist Party organized a general strike inAmsterdam and surrounding cities, known as theFebruary strike, in protest againstanti-Jewish measures by the Nazi occupying force and violence by fascist street fighters against Jews. Several hundreds of thousands of people participated in the strike. The strike was put down by the Nazis and some participants were executed.
In April 1941, theLiberation Front of the Slovene Nation was established in theProvince of Ljubljana. Its armed wing were theSlovene Partisans. It represented both the working class and the Slovene ethnicity.[28]
From April 1941,Bureau of Information and Propaganda of theUnion for Armed Struggle started in PolandOperation N headed byTadeusz Żenczykowski. Action consisted ofsabotage,subversion andblack-propaganda activities carried out by thePolish resistance againstNazi Germanoccupation forces duringWorld War II[29]
Beginning in March 1941, Witold Pilecki's reports were being forwarded via thePolish resistance to thePolish government in exile and through it, to the British government in London and other Allied governments. These reports were the first information about theHolocaust and the principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies.[30]
In May 1941, the Resistance Team "Elevtheria" (Freedom) was established inThessaloniki by politicians Paraskevas Barbas, Apostolos Tzanis, Ioannis Passalidis, Simos Kerasidis, Athanasios Fidas, Ioannis Evthimiadis and military officerDimitrios Psarros. Its armed wing comprised two armed forces;Athanasios Diakos led by Christodoulos Moschos(captain "Petros"), operating inKroussia; andOdysseas Androutsos led by Athanasios Genios(captain "Lassanis"), operating inVisaltia.[31][32][33]
The first anti-soviet uprising during World War II began on June 22, 1941 (the start-date ofOperation Barbarossa) inLithuania. On the same day, theSisak People's Liberation Partisan Detachment was formed in Croatia, near the town of Sisak. It was the first armed partisan unit in Croatia.
Communist-initiateduprising against Axis started inGerman-occupied Serbia on July 7, 1941, and six days later inMontenegro. TheRepublic of Užice (Ужичка република) was a short-lived liberated Yugoslav territory, the first part of occupied Europe to be liberated. Organized as a military mini-state it existed throughout the autumn of 1941 in the western part of Serbia. The Republic was established by the Partisan resistance movement and its administrative center was in the town of Užice. The government was made of "people's councils" (odbors), and the Communists opened schools and published a newspaper,Borba (meaning "Struggle"). They even managed to run a postal system and around 145 km (90 mi) of railway and operated an ammunition factory from the vaults beneath the bank in Užice.
In July 1941,Mieczysław Słowikowski (using the codename"Rygor"—Polish for "Rigor") set up "Agency Africa," one of World War II's most successful intelligence organizations.[34] His Polish allies in these endeavors included Lt. Col.Gwido Langer and MajorMaksymilian Ciężki. The information gathered by the Agency was used by the Americans and British in planning the amphibious November 1942Operation Torch[35][36] landings in North Africa.
On 13 July 1941, in Italian-occupiedMontenegro, Montenegrin separatistSekula Drljević proclaimed an independent Kingdom of Montenegro as an Italian governorate, upon which a nationwide rebellion escalated raised by Partisans, Yugoslav Royal officers and various other armed personnel. It was the first organized armed uprising in then occupied Europe, and involved 32,000 people. Most of Montenegro was quickly liberated, except major cities where Italian forces were well fortified. On 12 August — after a major Italian offensive involving 5 divisions and 30,000 soldiers — the uprising collapsed as units were disintegrating; poor leadership occurred as well as collaboration. The final toll of July 13 uprising in Montenegro was 735 dead, 1120 wounded and 2070 captured Italians and 72 dead and 53 wounded Montenegrins.[citation needed]
In response to theGenocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia, Serb civilians,Chetniks andYugoslav Partisans instigated uprisings inEastern Herzegovina and the region ofLika from June–September, 1941.[37]
In theBattle of Loznica, 31 August 1941,Chetniks attacked and freed the town ofLoznica inGerman-occupied Serbia from the Germans. Several Germans were killed and wounded; 93 were captured. This marked the first time a town was liberated in occupied Europe.[38]
On 11 October 1941, in Bulgarian-occupied Prilep, Macedonians attacked post of the Bulgarian occupation police, which was the start of Macedonian resistance against the fascists who occupied Macedonia: Germans, Italians, Bulgarians and Albanians. The resistance finished successfully in August–November 1944 when the independentMacedonian state was formed, which was later added to theFederal People's Republic of Yugoslavia.
At the time Hitler gave his anti-resistanceNacht und Nebel decree – the very day of theAttack on Pearl Harbor in the Pacific – the planning for Britain'sOperation Anthropoid was underway, as a resistance move to assassinateReinhard Heydrich, theDeputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia and the chief of theFinal Solution, by theCzech resistance in Prague. Over fifteen thousand Czechs were killed in reprisals, with the most infamous incidents being the complete destruction of the towns ofLidice andLežáky.
On February 16, 1942, the Greek Communist Party (KKE)-ledNational Liberation Front gave permission to a communist veteran, Athanasios (Thanasis) Klaras (later known asAris Velouchiotis) to examine the possibilities of an armed resistance movement, which led to the formation of theGreek People's Liberation Army (ELAS). ELAS initiated actions against the German and Italian forces of occupation in Greece on 7 June 1942. The ELAS grew to become the largest resistance movement against the fascists in Greece.
TheLuxembourgish general strike of 1942 was a passive resistance movement organised within a short time period to protest against a directive that incorporated the Luxembourg youth into the Wehrmacht. A national general strike, originating mainly in Wiltz, paralysed the country and forced the occupying German authorities to respond violently by sentencing 21 strikers to death.
On 27 May 1942Operation Anthropoid took place. Two armed Czechoslovak members of the army in exile (Jan Kubiš andJozef Gabčík) attempted to assassinate the SS-obergruppenführerReinhard Heydrich. Heydrich was not killed on the spot but died later at the hospital from his wounds. He is the highest ranked Nazi to have been assassinated during the war.
In September 1942, the Council to Aid Jews (Żegota) was founded byZofia Kossak-Szczucka andWanda Krahelska-Filipowicz ("Alinka") and made up of Polish Democrats as well as otherCatholic activists. Poland was the only country in occupied Europe where there existed such a dedicated secret organization. Half of the Jews who survived the war (thus over 50,000) were aided in some shape or form by Żegota.[39] The most known activist of Żegota wasIrena Sendler head of the children's division who saved 2,500Jewish children by smuggling them out of theWarsaw Ghetto, providing them false documents, and sheltering them in individual and group children's homes outside the ghetto.[40]
On the night of 7–8 October 1942,Operation Wieniec started. It targeted rail infrastructure nearWarsaw. Similar operations aimed at disrupting German transport and communication inoccupied Poland occurred in the coming months and years. It targeted railroads, bridges and supply depots, primarily near transport hubs such as Warsaw andLublin.
On 25 November, Greek guerrillas with the help of twelve British saboteurs[41] carried out a successful operation which disrupted the German ammunition transportation to the German Africa Corps underRommel—the destruction ofGorgopotamos bridge (Operation Harling).[42][43]
On 20 June 1942, the most spectacular escape fromAuschwitz concentration camp took place. Four Poles, Eugeniusz Bendera,[44]Kazimierz Piechowski, Stanisław Gustaw Jaster and Józef Lempart made a daring escape.[45] The escapees were dressed as members of theSS-Totenkopfverbände, fully armed and in an SS staff car. They drove out the main gate in a stolenRudolf Hoss automobileSteyr 220 with a smuggled report fromWitold Pilecki about theHolocaust. The Germans never recaptured any of them.[46]
TheZamość Uprising was an armed uprising ofArmia Krajowa andBataliony Chłopskie against the forcedexpulsion of Poles from theZamość region (Zamość Lands,Zamojszczyzna) under theNaziGeneralplan Ost. Nazi Germans attempting to remove the local Poles from the Greater Zamosc area (through forced removal, transfer to forced labor camps, or, in rare cases, mass murder) to get it ready for German colonization. It lasted from 1942 to 1944, and despite heavy casualties suffered by the Underground, the Germans failed.
By the middle of 1943 partisan resistance to the Germans and their allies had grown from the dimensions of a mere nuisance to those of a major factor in the general situation. In many parts of occupied Europe Germany was suffering losses at the hands of partisans that he could ill afford. Nowhere were these losses heavier than in Yugoslavia.[47]
In early January 1943, the 20,000 strong main operational group of theYugoslav Partisans, stationed in westernBosnia, came under ferocious attack by over 150,000 German and Axis troops, supported by about 200Luftwaffeaircraft in what became known as theBattle of the Neretva (the German codename was"Fall Weiss" or"Case White").[48] The Axis rallied eleven divisions, six German, three Italian, and two divisions of theIndependent State of Croatia (supported byUstaše formations) as well as a number ofChetnik brigades.[49] The goal was to destroy the Partisan HQ and main field hospital (all Partisan wounded and prisoners faced certain execution), but this was thwarted by the diversion and retreat across theNeretva river, planned by the Partisan supreme command led by MarshalJosip Broz Tito. The main Partisan force escaped intoSerbia.
On 19 April 1943, three members of theBelgian resistance movement were able to stop theTwentieth convoy, which was the 20th prisoner transport inBelgium organised by the Germans duringWorld War II. The exceptional action by members of the Belgian resistance occurred to freeJewish andRomani ("Gypsy") civilians who were being transported by train from the Dossin army base located inMechelen,Belgium to the concentration campAuschwitz. The 20th train convoy transported 1,631 Jews (men, women and children). Some of the prisoners were able to escape and marked this particular kind of liberation action by the Belgian resistance movement as unique in the European history of theHolocaust.
One of the bravest and most significant displays of public defiance against the Nazis isthe rescue of the Danish Jews in October 1943. Nearly all of the Danish Jews were saved from concentration camps by theDanish resistance. However, the action was largely due to the personal intervention of German diplomatGeorg Ferdinand Duckwitz, who both leaked news of the intended round up of the Jews to both the Danish opposition and Jewish groups and negotiated with the Swedes to ensure Danish Jews would be accepted in Sweden.
On 13 June 1943, theUkrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), organized mainly by theBanderite faction of the far-rightOrganisation of Ukrainian Nationalists which collaborated with the Nazis until July 1941, liberated a territory in Volyn from the Nazis and established the so-calledKolky Republic. The UPA reopened the local power station, bakery, dairy, post office, school, and set up an administration. The "republic" existed until 3 November 1943, when it was liquidated by the Nazis with the help of paratroopers, aircraft and armored vehicles.[50]
TheBattle of Sutjeska from 15 May – 16 June 1943 was a joint attack of the Axis forces that once again attempted to destroy the main Yugoslav Partisan force, near theSutjeska river in southeastern Bosnia. The Axis rallied 127,000 troops for the offensive, including German,Italian,NDH,Bulgarian andCossack units, as well as over 300 airplanes (under German operational command), against 18,000 soldiers of the primary Yugoslav Partisans operational group organised in 16 brigades. Facing almost exclusively German troops in the final encirclement, the Yugoslav Partisans finally succeeded in breaking out across the Sutjeska river through the lines of the German118th Jäger Division,104th Jäger Division and369th (Croatian) Infantry Division in the northwestern direction, towards eastern Bosnia. Three brigades and the central hospital with over 2,000 wounded remained surrounded and, following Hitler's instructions, German commander-in-chief GeneralAlexander Löhr ordered and carried out their annihilation, including the wounded and unarmed medical personnel. In addition, Partisan troops suffered from a severe lack of food and medical supplies, and many were struck down bytyphoid. However, the failure of the offensive marked a turning point forYugoslavia during World War II.
Operation Heads started—an action of serialassassinations of the Nazi personnel sentenced to death by theUnderground court for crimes against Polish citizens inoccupied Poland. The Resistance fighters of PolishHome Army's unitAgat killedFranz Bürkl duringOperation Bürkl. Bürkl was a high-ranking Nazi GermanSS and secret police officer responsible for the murder and brutal interrogation of thousands of Polish Jews and Polish resistance fighters and supporters.
TheWarsaw Ghetto Uprising by the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto lasted from 19 April-16 May, and cost the Nazi forces 17 dead and 93 wounded by their own count, though some Jewish resistance figures claimed that German casualties were far higher.
On 30 September theGerman forces occupying theItalian city ofNaples were forced out by the townsfolk and theItalian Resistance before thearrival of the first Allied forces in the city on 1 October. This popular uprising is known as theFour days of Naples.[53]
On October 9, 1943, the Kinabalu guerillas launched theJesselton Revolt against theJapanese occupation of British Borneo.
From November 1943,Operation Most III started. The Armia Krajowa provided the Allies with crucial intelligence on the GermanV-2 rocket. In effect, some 50 kg (110 lb) of the most important parts of the captured V-2, as well as the final report, analyses, sketches and photos, were transported toBrindisi by aRoyal Air ForceDouglas Dakota aircraft. In late July 1944, the V-2 parts were delivered toLondon.[54]
On 1 February 1944, the Resistance fighters of the PolishHome Army's unitAgat executedFranz Kutschera,SS andReich's Police Chief inWarsaw in an action known asOperation Kutschera.[55][56]
In the spring of 1944, a plan was laid out by the Allies to kidnap General Müller, whose harsh repressive measures had earned him the nickname "the Butcher ofCrete". The operation was led by MajorPatrick Leigh Fermor, together with CaptainW. Stanley Moss, GreekSOE agents andCretan resistance fighters. However, Müller left the island before the plan could be carried out. Undeterred, Fermor decided to abductGeneral Heinrich Kreipe instead.
On the night of 26 April, General Kreipe left his headquarters inArchanes and headed without escort to his well-guarded residence, "Villa Ariadni", approximately 25 km outsideHeraklion. Major Fermor and Captain Moss, dressed as German military policemen, waited for him 1 km (0.62 mi) before his residence. They asked the driver to stop and asked for their papers. As soon as the car stopped, Fermor quickly opened Kreipe's door, rushed in and threatened him with his guns while Moss took the driver's seat. After driving some distance the British left the car, with suitable decoy material being planted that suggesting an escape off the island had been made bysubmarine, and with the General began a cross-country march. Hunted by German patrols, the group moved across the mountains to reach the southern side of the island, where a BritishMotor Launch (ML 842, commanded by Brian Coleman) was to pick them up. Eventually, on 14 May 1944, they were picked up (from Peristeres beach near Rhodakino) and transferred to Egypt.
In April–May 1944, theSS launched the daring airborneRaid on Drvar aimed at capturing MarshalJosip Broz Tito, the commander-in-chief of theYugoslav Partisans, as well as disrupting their leadership and command structure. The Partisan headquarters were in the hills nearDrvar,Bosnia at the time. The representatives of theAllies,Britain'sRandolph Churchill andEvelyn Waugh, were also present. Elite German SS parachute commando units fought their way to Tito'scave headquarters and exchanged heavy gunfire resulting in numerous casualties on both sides.[57]Chetniks underDraža Mihailović also flocked to the firefight in their own attempt to capture Tito. By the time German forces had penetrated to the cave, however, Tito had already fled the scene. He had a train waiting for him that took him to the town ofJajce. It would appear that Tito and his staff were well prepared for emergencies. The commandos were only able to retrieve Tito's marshal's uniform, which was later displayed inVienna. After fierce fighting in and around the villager's cemetery, the Germans were able to link up with mountain troops. By that time, Tito, his British guests andPartisan survivors were fêted aboard theRoyal NavydestroyerHMS Blackmore and her captain Lt. Carson, RN.
An intricate series of resistance operations were launched in France prior to, and during,Operation Overlord.On June 5, 1944, theBBC broadcast a group of unusual sentences, which the Germans knew were code words—possibly for the invasion of Normandy. The BBC would regularly transmit hundreds of personal messages, of which only a few were really significant. A few days before D-Day, the commanding officers of the Resistance heard the first line ofVerlaine's poem, "Chanson d'automne","Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne" (Long sobs of autumn violins) which meant that the "day" was imminent. When the second line"Blessent mon cœur d'une langueur monotone" (wound my heart with a monotonous languor) was heard, the Resistance knew that the invasion would take place within the next 48 hours. They then knew it was time to go about their respective pre-assigned missions. All over France resistance groups had been coordinated, and various groups throughout the country increased their sabotage. Communications were cut, trains derailed, roads, water towers and ammunition depots destroyed and German garrisons were attacked. Some relayed info about German defensive positions on the beaches of Normandy to American and British commanders by radio, just prior to 6 June. Victory did not come easily; in June and July, in theVercors plateau a newly reinforced maquis group fought more than 10,000 German soldiers (no Waffen-SS) under General Karl Pflaum and was defeated, with 840 casualties (639 fighters and 201 civilians). Following theTulle Murders, Major Otto Diekmann's Waffen-SS company wiped out the village ofOradour-sur-Glane on 10 June. The resistance also assisted the later Allied invasion in the south of France (Operation Dragoon).They started insurrections in cities such asParis when allied forces came close.
Operation Halyard, which took place between August and December 1944,[58] was an Alliedairlift operation behind enemy lines during World War II conducted byChetniks in occupied Yugoslavia. In July 1944, theOffice of Strategic Services (OSS) drew up plans to send a team to Chetniks led by GeneralDraža Mihailović in theGerman-occupiedTerritory of the Military Commander in Serbia for the purpose of evacuating Allied airmen shot down over that area.[59] This team, known as the Halyard team, was commanded byLieutenantGeorge Musulin, along withMaster Sergeant Michael Rajacich, and Specialist Arthur Jibilian, the radio operator. The team was detailed to theUnited StatesFifteenth Air Force and designated as the 1st Air Crew Rescue Unit.[60] It was the largest rescue operation of American Airmen in history.[61] According to historian ProfessorJozo Tomasevich, a report submitted to the OSS showed that 417[62] Allied airmen who had been downed over occupied Yugoslavia were rescued by Mihailović's Chetniks,[63] and airlifted out by the Fifteenth Air Force.[59] According to Lt. Cmdr. Richard M. Kelly (OSS) grand total of 432 U.S. and 80 Allied personnel were airlifted during the Halyard Mission.[64]
Operation Tempest launched in Poland in 1944 would lead to several major actions byArmia Krajowa, most notable of them being theWarsaw Uprising that took place in between August 1 and October 2, and failed due to the Soviet refusal, due to differences in ideology, to help;[citation needed] another one wasOperation Ostra Brama: theArmia Krajowa orHome Army turned the weapons given to them by the Nazi Germans (in hope that they would fight the incoming Soviets) against the Nazi Germans—in the end the Home Army together with the Soviet troops took over the GreaterVilnius area to the dismay of theLithuanians.
On 25 June 1944, theBattle of Osuchy started—one of the largest battles between the Polish resistance andNazi Germany inoccupied Poland duringWorld War II, essentially a continuation of theZamosc Uprising.[65] DuringOperation Most III, in 1944, the PolishHome Army orArmia Krajowa provided the British with the parts of theV-2 rocket.
Norwegiansabotages of the German nuclear program drew to a close after three years on 20 February 1944, with the saboteur bombing of the ferrySF Hydro. The ferry was to carry railway cars withheavy water drums from theVemork hydroelectric plant, where they were produced, acrossLake Tinn so they could be shipped to Germany. Its sinking effectively ended Nazi nuclear ambitions. The series of raids on the plant was later dubbed by the BritishSOE as the most successful act of sabotage in all of World War II, and was used as a basis for the US war movieThe Heroes of Telemark.
As an initiation of their uprising,Slovakian rebels entered Banská Bystrica on the morning of 30 August 1944, the second day of the rebellion, and made it their headquarters. By 10 September, the insurgents gained control of large areas of central and eastern Slovakia. That included two captured airfields. As a result of the two-week-old insurgency, the Soviet Air Force was able to begin flying in equipment to Slovakian and Soviet partisans.
On 9 September 1944, the Communist-ledpartisan movement in Bulgaria organized to fight the Bulgarian pro-Axis authorities and theWehrmachtoverthrew the pro-Axis government of Bulgaria. This led to Bulgaria switching sides in World War II from the Axis to the Allies and to the Soviet invasion of Bulgaria which resulted in the establishment of the Stalinist regime in Bulgaria after the war.
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Since January 1945, members of the anti-fascistNational Committee for a Free Germany (NKFD) had been allowed to formcompanies which would participate as an as an auxiliary force of the Red Army in its military operations. The NKFD was formed in 1943 mostly of the German prisoners of war in the USSR which agreed to side the Red Army. While its leadership participated only in non-violent activities such as appeal to the German troops to surrender like during theBattle of Korsun–Cherkassy, in December 1943, its members of lower ranks began forming Combat Groups (or Combat Units,German:Kampfgruppen) were sent to theWehrmacht rear areas where they combined propaganda with collecting intelligence, performing military reconnaissance, sabotage and combat against theWehrmacht. Although until 1945Kampfgruppen had been only smallcommandos, in 1945, it was allowed for NKFD to form companies which would be sent at the front. They pretended to be scatteredWehrmacht soldiers and attempted to enter behind the German lines, and if the latter was successful, they persuaded the troops besieged by the Red Army to surrender, and if the latter refused, they participated in combat and withdrew. There are clear evidences of the NKFD units participating in combat against theWehrmacht in theBattle of Königsberg,siege of Breslau and in theCourland Pocket, as well as in the rather minor battles for Thorn and Graudenz and thesiege of Danzig.[66][67][68] AsOtto Lasch wrote, "We could no longer think of a useful recipe for how our own soldiers should behave in such cases. The fight seemed to had become pointless if Germans were now fighting against Germans."[69] There are several testimonies of the Germans who participated in the war that they saw members of the NKFD fighting alongside the Red Army during theBattle of Berlin, however, there is no documentary evidence, at least yet, to support these claims.[70]
During theVienna offensive of the Red Army between March and April 1945, theAustrian resistance groups in the army launched theOperation Radetzky [de;es;fr] led by majorCarl Szokoll, a plot to surrender Vienna to the Red Army and therefore save it from destruction. Although the plot had failed, Szokoll survived, and the city only saw moderate fighting and the inner districts saw practically no fighting.
During the last days of the war, on 5 May 1945, theCzech resistance launched thePrague uprising as the Allied forces advanced to Prague. The uprising was supported by the 1st Division of theRussian Liberation Army (ROA), a collaborationist unit formed mainly of ethnic Russian POWs in Germany. The ROA and the political movement behind it led by the Soviet defector generalAndrey Vlasov was itself, asMartin Malia calls it, a "resistance" movement to Stalinism,[71] but it achieved little but ade-jure independent small Nazi-sponsored army headed by theCommittee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, a political organization which presented a democratic political program despite the Nazi control of the Vlasov movement. Initially, thePrague offensive of the Red Army which would liberate Czechoslovakia concurrently with the uprising, was set on 7 May,[72] but as the uprising began the Red Army was ordered to advance the launch of its offensive to 6 May.[73] The Western Allies did not participate in the liberation of Prague, and after the war the Stalinist regime was set up in Czechoslovakia.[74]
a^ Sources vary with regard to what was the largest resistance movement during World War II. The confusion often stems from the fact that as war progressed, some resistance movements grew larger – and other diminished. In particular, Polish and Soviet territories were mostly freed from Nazi German control in the years 1944–1945, eliminating the need for their respective (anti-Nazi) partisan forces (in Poland,cursed soldiers continued to fight against the Soviets). Fighting in Yugoslavia, however, with Yugoslavian partisans fighting German units,continued till the end of the war. The numbers for each of those three movements can be roughly estimated as approaching 100,000 in 1941, and 200,000 in 1942, with Polish and Soviet partisan numbers peaking around 1944 at 350,000-400,000, and Yugoslavian, growing till the very end till they reached the 800,000.[83][84]
Several sources note that PolishArmia Krajowa was the largest resistance movement inNazi-occupied Europe. For example,Norman Davies wrote "Armia Krajowa (Home Army), the AK, which could fairly claim to be the largest of European resistance";[85]Gregor Dallas wrote "Home Army (Armia Krajowa or AK) in late 1943 numbered around 400,000, making it the largest resistance organization in Europe";[13]Mark Wyman wrote "Armia Krajowa was considered the largest underground resistance unit in wartime Europe".[86] Certainly, Polish resistance was the largest resistance till Germaninvasion of Yugoslavia andinvasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
After that point, the numbers ofSoviet partisans andYugoslav partisans began growing rapidly. The numbers ofSoviet partisans quickly caught up and were very similar to that of the Polish resistance (a graph is also availablehere).[83][87]
The numbers of Tito'sYugoslav partisans were roughly similar to those of the Polish and Soviet partisans in the first years of the war (1941–1942), but grew rapidly in the latter years, outnumbering the Polish and Soviet partisans by 2:1 or more (estimates give Yugoslavian forces about 800,000 in 1945, to Polish and Soviet forces of 400,000 in 1944).[83][84] Some authors also call it the largest resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Europe, for example,Kathleen Malley-Morrison wrote: "The Yugoslav partisan guerrilla campaign, which developed into the largest resistance army in occupied Western and Central Europe...".[88]
The numbers ofFrench resistance were smaller, around 10,000 in 1942, and swelling to 200,000 by 1944.[89]
From 1942 in particular, then, resistance across occupied Europe was an active and burgeoning phenomenon
